Teaching on Christian Friendship

In the June term this year at the seminary where I teach, Trinity School for Ministry, Ill be the instructor for a week-long intensive class on a Christian theology of friendship. Im excited about this opportunity not least because Im working on a book about friendship , and teaching a class on that theme will give me a chance to try out many of my ideas in group discussions and receive helpful feedback and criticism. (And vice versa: because Ive been reading and writing so much on the theme, I expect Ill be of more benefit to the students than I otherwise might have been. As Mark Noll has said, There can be no good teaching without good scholarship.)

My plan is to have the students read two books ahead of time, the first being Liz Carmichaels Friendship: Interpreting Christian Love . Carmichael, whos a chaplain, fellow, and tutor in theology at St. Johns College, Oxford, does a fine job of surveying the history of Christian thought on friendship, from Aelred of Rievaulxs dialogue Spiritual Friendship to Jeremy Taylors misgivings about it to John Henry Newmans writings on the topic. Alongside Carmichaels historical (and warmly pastoral) book, Im assigning Brother John of Taizés more overtly pastoral, edifying treatment, Friends in Christ: Paths to a New Understanding of the Church . This latter book will help us flesh out in practical terms what Carmichael puts in historical perspective, namely, the early Christian transplanting of Greco-Roman ideals of friendship into an ecclesial, siblings-in-Christ context. And during the class itself, well spend a good bit of time working our way through Aelred of Rievaulxs dialogue itselfattempting a close reading, as they say.